This time Obama took discussion of the Wright controversy to Philadelphia and, drawing on his own multi-racial American background, his personal philosophy of politics and his training as a constitutional scholar, unraveled a stunner of a speech on the history of race relations in the United States. It was the kind of distinctly unique speech that, even if it doesn’t win him the nomination, will likely find its way into the digital curriculum of high schools across the nation. It was the kind of speech you got the feeling right from the jump that only Barack Obama could deliver and only at this point in time. The long excerpt in the YouTube above may be taken down soon by CNN, but it will no doubt be plenty sampled and redistributed… will.i.am probably already calling on his peeps to turn it into a mad viral video.

Will it be enough to win over the voters who may now think Obama is just Jeremiah Wright-light? It went a long way toward explaining to the uninitiated what the Wright variety of sermonizing is all about and why and how Obama thinks differently than Wright does on issues of race and America, especially as Wright’s thinking is presented in the YouTubes. Obama touched on black anger and white anger, black bias and white bias, on the recent racially charged politics of distraction that are a symptom of the problem of persistent race resentments in the country. He denounced Wright’s statements but didn’t abandon the man. In fact, to abandon Wright to try to gain voters in working class Pennsylvania and elsewhere, as some analysts suggested was a real option, would have been ridiculous, completely contrary to the reconciliation and understanding he was encouraging us as a nation to embrace.

Granted, Obama was effectively forced to make this incredible speech. He has avoided speaking directly on race in the past. But to rise to the challenge, to make of it an opportunity to be bold, to speak directly to the issue and not backpedal, that’s the kind of thing you hope for from a national leader. John Dickerson, writing on the speech at Slate, asked “Can you give a State of the Union address before you’re president?” to which he answers: “…this [speech] felt like it addressed the actual state of our union more than those dreary January list readings presidents are obligated to perform.”

The state Obama addressed in this speech is a state our union has been wading through and afraid to address in a fashion like this for decades— and never as part of a legitimate full-scale presidential primary campaign. Talking about race is never easy. Talking about it in the wake of a race scandal generated by the actions of a respected friend is another thing altogether. Talking about it on national TV in a deeply personal and informed way at remarkable length and using almost no notes in the middle of a campaign is something we’re not likely to see again anytime soon.

Obama got a hard inside fastball hurled at him this week. It may have been just what his campaign needed.

NOTE: The webnets tell me that people on the ground for the speech have made reference to the use of a teleprompter. Still impressive.

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